Ky. Mesonet Expanding to Madison County

The Kentucky Mesonet is expanding its weather and climate monitoring network to Madison County.

A Mesonet station is being installed at the Eastern Kentucky University Farm. Technicians will be on the site Tuesday installing instrumentation.

“We are extremely pleased to be installing a new station in Madison County as part of the Kentucky Mesonet,” said Dr. Stuart Foster, director of the Mesonet and the Kentucky Climate Center at Western Kentucky University. “This site will provide valuable data to assist National Weather Service meteorologists in producing forecasts and severe weather warnings, and will also provide benefits to a wide range of interests in the local area.”

More than 20 Mesonet sites are operational statewide collecting real-time weather and climate data on temperature, precipitation, humidity, solar radiation, wind speed and direction. Data is packaged into observations and transmitted to the Kentucky Climate Center at WKU every five minutes, 24 hours per day, throughout the year.

The data is available online at www.kymesonet.org; the website includes a “Live Graphs” feature that allows users to visualize weather/climate data collected in a 24-hour period.

The Mesonet project’s goal is to develop a statewide automated environmental monitoring network of approximately 100 stations that will collect data and support a variety of needs across Kentucky in agriculture, education, emergency management, energy, engineering and construction, recreation, transportation, water supply management and weather forecasting.

Since the Mesonet’s first station at the WKU farm in Warren County became operational in May 2007, more than 20 stations have been installed and plans for expanding the network are progressing. The Mesonet has partnered with universities, school districts, businesses, farmers and others for site locations. The National Weather Service and media outlets are utilizing the Mesonet data for weather forecasts and reports.

State Climatologist Stuart Foster is director of the Kentucky Mesonet and the Kentucky Climate Center. Dr. Rezaul Mahmood, associate professor of Geography and Geology, is associate director of the Kentucky Mesonet and the Kentucky Climate Center. The Kentucky Mesonet staff includes meteorologists and staff with expertise in instrumentation, information technology, quality assurance, and education outreach.  The Kentucky Mesonet also provides opportunities for WKU student employees and interns to work side-by-side with professional staff.

Initial funding for the project was secured by U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell through a $2.9 million federal appropriation for the Kentucky Climate Center, part of WKU’s Applied Research and Technology Program in the Ogden College of Science and Engineering.

For information, contact Stuart Foster at (270) 745-5983.

Students from 10 states to attend speech and debate camp July 12-17

Seventy-five students from Kentucky and nine other states will attend the 2009 Summer Forensic Camp July 12-17 at WKU.

The weeklong camp, hosted by WKU’s award-winning forensic program, provides speech and debate instruction for junior high and high school students. Instructors include college and high school coaches as well as members of the WKU forensic team.

In 2009, WKU’s speech and debate team won its eighth National Forensic Association National Tournament championship in debate and its sixth championship in individual events, its sixth American Forensic Association National Individual Events Tournament and its 19th consecutive Kentucky Forensic Association State Championship.

Participants in this year’s camp

SOKY Book Fest’s next Big Read project will focus on ‘The Great Gatsby’

The Southern Kentucky Book Fest partners have received a $10,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to host another Big Read project in Bowling Green and the surrounding region.

The Big Read gives communities the opportunity to come together to read, discuss, and celebrate one of 30 selections from American and world literature. The Big Read in Bowling Green will center on the classic book The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The project will be held Sept. 15 to Nov. 15 and focus on the theme of the American Dream.

“During these challenging economic times reading The Great Gatsby is especially relevant,” said WKU Libraries Community Outreach Manager Tracy Harkins.

Warren County Public Library Director Lisa Rice said: “The book’s 1920s period will provide for community dialogues about social class and how success is defined in America.”

Big Read activities will include a roaring twenties party, national guest speakers, numerous book discussions, and book giveaways of 1,000 copies of the novel. This is the second Big Read for SOKY Book Fest which previously hosted a To Kill a Mockingbird program.

The partners chose The Great Gatsby because of several Kentucky ties to the book. Author Fitzgerald was stationed in Kentucky during WWI and he frequented the famous Seelbach Hotel in Louisville. His wife Zelda’s family was also from Kentucky. The Great Gatsby characters Nick and Daisy meet in Louisville where she is said to be from a wealthy Southern family.

SOKY Book Fest is one of 269 organizations nationwide and seven in Kentucky to receive a grant to host The Big Read during the upcoming academic year. To date, the NEA has given more than 800 grants to support local Big Read projects.

SOKY Book Fest is a partnership project of WKU Libraries, Warren County Public Library, and Barnes and Noble booksellers.

Contact: Tracy Harkins at 270-745-5016.

WKU-Owensboro adds graduate degree in Student Affairs; Q-and-A July 14

The WKU Owensboro Regional Campus has added a Master of Arts degree in Student Affairs to its growing list of programs offered locally.

A question-and-answer session about the Student Affairs master’s degree program is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. July 14 in the Advanced Technological Center at the campus of the OCTC on New Hartford Road. Interested students are asked to register for the sessions by Friday, July 10.

Beginning fall 2009, a limited number of courses will be offered at the WKU-Owensboro campus each semester, making the degree attainable even for those students who also work full-time or part-time.

The 48-hour degree program covers three broad content areas — Theoretical Foundations, Professional Practice, and Administrative Effectiveness. Individual students have the opportunity to focus on specific content areas that may be of particular interest to them. Courses being offered this fall are Introduction to Student Affairs and The College Student Experience.

Student Affairs can be a meaningful career in which those involved can make a positive difference in the lives of other people. Students in this program will be challenged to develop skills in a variety of areas such as leadership, student advising, administration, and supervision.

“This student affairs preparation program trains professionals to help college students grow, to identify their personal strengths and talents, and their leadership skills,” according to Dr. Gene Tice, director of the WKU-Owensboro Regional Campus. “This out of the classroom support has been shown to increase the success rate of students in the community college and four-year institutional setting.”

For information about the Master of Arts in Student Affairs or any of the programs available at WKU-O, contact Lewatis McNeal, graduate advisor, at 270-684-9797 or visit the WKU-O website. WKU-Owensboro is a unit of the Division of Extended Learning & Outreach (DELO).

Contact: Stacey Biggs at (270) 745-1926.

WKU – Owensboro is a unit of the Division of Extended Learning & Outreach (DELO)

Motorcycle safety courses offered

As millions of motorcyclists are taking to highways and back roads across the United States this summer, WKU’s Division of Extended Learning and Outreach reminds motorcycle riders that Continuing Education offers courses that address safety issues.

Riders can choose the appropriate course – basic rider or experienced rider — based on their current skill level.

Basic Rider Course

The Basic Rider Course is for non-riders, new riders or someone wanting a refresher course and is open to anyone 16 or older.

Classes for the Basic Rider Course meet on Friday from 6 to 9 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. (Central time). The fee is $125. Attendance is required at all classroom and skills hours to successfully complete course requirements.

Upcoming dates for the Basic Rider course are July 10-12, July 24-26, Aug. 7-9, Aug. 21-23, Sept. 4-6, Sept. 18-20, Oct. 2-4, Oct. 23-25, and Nov. 6-8. Courses fill up quickly so contact Continuing Education at (270) 745-1910 or register online.

The course begins with straight-line riding, turning, shifting and stopping and gradually progresses to cornering, swerving and emergency braking. In the classroom students learn about the different types of motorcycles, their controls, and how they operate.

WKU students, faculty study abroad

WKU students, faculty and staff are traveling to 22 overseas destinations during WKU’s summer terms to expand their academic experience.

Between May and August, more than 180 students will study with more than 25 WKU instructors. Students will learn in Europe, Asia, the Americas and Africa. They will bring their experience back to campus through research presentations, class assignments and other public events. The study abroad programs include WKU faculty-led, consortia, affiliated, and third-party providers, most found on the Study Abroad & Global Learning web site.

Due to factors seen around the country, WKU has experienced a 10 percent drop in the number of students doing study abroad from the last academic year. The primary factor is the economy with many program providers reporting a similar drop.

In response to student demand, WKU is actively seeking opportunities through established relationships with partner institutions, consortia and program providers. New options for international internships are being developed, and WKU is adding exchange programs to provide students most effective short-term and semester-long programs in the destinations that serve to advance the academic interests of our students.

WKU’s Study Abroad & Global Learning is committed to providing every WKU student the opportunity to add a global view to the lessons learned in the classroom. We serve the WKU community by engaging students, faculty and staff in diverse, educational, and cultural experiences through study abroad opportunities.

Contact: Jerry Barnaby at (270) 745-5334 or email study.abroad@wku.edu.

HistoryMobile to visit WKU on June 30

Bowling Green residents, visitors and students at WKU will have an opportunity to explore “Kentucky’s Abraham Lincoln” when they visit the 300-square-foot exhibit housed in the HistoryMobile, an experience provided by the Kentucky Historical Society (KHS). The HistoryMobile will be at the Downing University Center’s South Lawn on June 30.

The Kentucky Historical Society’s HistoryMobile is a mobile museum featuring exhibits on Kentucky history. The 300-square-foot exhibit, housed in a 45-foot tractor-trailer, explores Lincoln’s frontier childhood, his career from log house to the White House, and his struggles to end slavery and lead the nation through the Civil War. The HistoryMobile will visit communities and school campuses throughout the state during the next two years as part of the Kentucky Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial.

This program is made possible by the generosity of the Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels, the Pilot Corporation, and the Kentucky Historical Society Foundation.

Since 1973, this program has presented a wide variety of exhibits on Kentucky history to at least one million Kentuckians, half of which have been students.

Contact: Laura Coleman at 502-564-1792, ext. 4419 or Laura.Coleman@ky.gov

Geologists, graduate student attend international petroleum conference

Two WKU faculty members and a graduate student attended the annual convention and exhibition of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) June 7-10 in Denver.

Geology faculty members Dr. Michael May and Dr. Kenneth Kuehn presented a poster titled “Renewed Interest in Heavy Oils and Rock Asphalt in South Central Kentucky” and geoscience graduate student Chrissie Hollon of Bowling Green presented a poster titled “Identifying and Reconstructing the Pre-Pennsylvanian Surface in the Mammoth Cave National Park Region in South-Central Kentucky.”

An editor of World Oil recognized the poster by May and Kuehn as being of interest to the magazine’s international readership and the two are working on a related article on assessment and recovery of heavy oil resources to be published in the August issue of World Oil. Hollon was recognized by the Society for Sedimentary Geology (SEPM), a sister AAPG organization, for her initial research efforts and was awarded a monetary prize to defray her cost of attending the conference and conducting research.

The conference was the largest energy based geology gathering in 15 years, with more than 7,000 professional geologists and students attending from more than 30 countries. The AAPG has cultivated a truly international atmosphere in its meetings, as notably evident by the placement of the international pavilion at the Denver Convention Center for 2009. The international pavilion provided a venue for petroleum geologists to discuss various applications of technologies and myriad prospective areas around the world. Nearly all continents were represented at the pavilion, as well as a wide range of countries such as Aruba, Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Ireland, Kenya, Korea, Namibia, Peru, Senegal and Uruguay.

Contact: Mike May at michael.may@wku.edu or (270) 745-6891

Imagewest students traveling to Spain for international summer internship

Imagewest, the nation’s only student-run, revenue based, full-service advertising and public relations agency at WKU, will be traveling to Spain for four weeks this summer to give WKU students the opportunity to work with clients there.

Imagewest will start its journey collaborating with various universities in Barcelona. After working in Barcelona, Imagewest International will be developing an advertising campaign for the City Council of Villanueva de la Cañada, a municipal district of Madrid. Imagewest will also be partnering with a University in Madrid, The Universidad Camilo Jose’ Cela (UCJC).

The international internship will take place from mid-June through mid-July. Revenues generated from Imagewest were used for scholarships to aid Imagewest International students with trip costs. Interns for the Imagewest international summer internship are Maggie Hinklin, Matt Plappert , Zac Stout and Brooke Winebrenner, all from Louisville. Group leaders are Imagewest Agency Manager Heather Garcia and WKU advertising professor Mark Simpson.

To stay up to date with Imagewest on their adventure to Spain, visit the group’s website to see blogs, photos and videos about the trip.

Since the agency’s opening in 2004, Imagewest has worked with more than 150 clients on a local, regional and international stage. An internship at Imagewest is a unique, hands-on experience that allows students to work on real client projects for course credit.

WKU department head Webb will compete in AARP National Spelling Bee

Dr. Cathleen Webb, head of WKU’s Chemistry Department, mother of two and AARP member, is preparing to compete in her second AARP National Spelling Bee.

The competition will be held June 20 in Cheyenne, Wyo. Dr. Webb and her family will leave Bowling Green for Wyoming on Monday (June 15).

AARP sponsors the only national spelling bee for adults 50-plus. Spellers from across the country compete for more than $1,000 in gifts and prizes. The winner of the Bee will appear on National Public Radio’s Weekend Edition on June 21.

Dr. Webb competed in the 2008 AARP National Spelling Bee and her goal this year is to advance past the competition’s second round. “I’d been coaching my daughter for spelling bees for years and on a whim Googled for adult spelling bees and found AARP’s. The competition is serious, but great fun and element names are my favorites,” she said.

Her training has included studying sample word lists as often as her schedule allows.

AARP Kentucky state director Phil Peters said: “We are excited for the whole Webb family and are cheering Dr. Webb on in the 2009 competition. This event is really a celebration of lifelong learning and we’re proud to have Kentucky so well represented.”

The AARP National Spelling Bee consists of two rounds of competition, beginning with a 100-word written competition in the morning, narrowing the field to the top 15 spellers who go on to compete in the oral spelling rounds. Spellers are allowed to miss three words in the oral rounds before being knocked out of the competition.

Contact: Scott Wegenast, Associate State Director – Communications,AARP Kentucky State Office, at (502) 394-3425 or swegenast@aarp.org